What's New: Fast Forward 2020: The Real Car Tech of Tomorrow

How more bytes, lighter bits, and safer belts will shape the cars of the next decade.

Things can change dramatically in the span of a decade. If you’re reading this, you likely have access to the internet (or at least a generous friend with a printer). The same might not have been true in the year 2000. Since then, web access has made it to our pockets and our cars. Ten years ago, talking to your car was a sign you had a screw loose, airbags were not purchased by the dozen, and electric cars were found in large quantities only on carnival midways and golf courses. Cars are certainly changing, and the rate of that change will only increase over the next decade.

STAYING CONNECTED

For better or worse, the internet and cars will be inextricably linked in the future. Whereas some (like us) see this as more potential for distraction, the tweeters and the texters are going to win out on this one. As cellular data speeds increase, so will the speed of in-car internet (and the potential for accidents). This improved access does have its advantages, though; GPS map data will be more accurate and include richer accompanying info that’s actually up-to-date. The kids will have a never-ending supply of YouTube videos to watch on the way to Grandma’s (good luck getting them out of the car). And, you know, you’ll be able to more easily check Facebook from the road. So that’s good.

USB and Cellular Updates

Aside from just accessing the web, though, your car will be able to better sync with your computers and mobile devices. The address book that lives on your desktop will appear on your car’s infotainment computer. Now that more and more infotainment systems include USB ports, the in-car systems will be easy to update when new software becomes available, which should make syncing with the latest smartphones possible. Updates may also be sent over the air, making use of your cell phone’s data connection or taking advantage of the cell radios already fitted to vehicles with telematics systems such as GM’s OnStar or Mercedes-Benz’s Tele Aid.

Holographic Info Displays

With all this information flowing through our cars, data displays will become even more important. We know that Audi and a couple other manufacturers are working on holographic-style head-up displays. (Obi-Wan would be proud.) These color images will be projected in front of the driver and be most useful for things like 3-D maps and driving directions. We can get behind anything that has the ability to keep more eyes on the road. More use of digital gauges, in-dash displays, and larger touchscreens is also a given.

Car-to-X Communication

Cars themselves will stay more connected—to one another and to the road infrastructure. Called “car-to-X communication,” these systems are being tested by several companies and allow vehicles to communicate with stop lights, report traffic to the grid, and warn other vehicles of accidents. This increased awareness has the potential to save fuel, time, and lives. There are some inherent privacy issues here, but we think the Twitter Nation has already blindly given up that right.

STAYING SAFE

Speaking of technology with the potential to keep us safer, we see even more bits and bytes being devoted to the task of keeping us on the road. This goes beyond soon-to-be-mandated stability control and traction control, although those systems only stand to be improved over time.

Proliferation of Advanced Cruise Control

Laser- or radar-guided stop-and-go cruise control is already commonplace among luxury automakers, and we expect these systems to be offered on all but the least expensive vehicles in the future. Although this kind of tech is billed as a safety feature, a car that can prevent tailgating or stop itself without human intervention is likely to encourage and reinforce bad driving habits. Autopilot can’t be far behind.

More Lane Nannies

Two more silly driver aids, blind-spot monitors and lane-departure-warning systems, will also get a shot in the arm. A new system from Infiniti, set to debut on the 2011 M, combines the two. It will not only steer your car back into its lane when you wander but will also try to keep you from moving into the next lane when it’s occupied by another vehicle. Don’t think Infiniti will be the only manufacturer to utilize this technology. (Our favorite tech of this type? The driver’s eyes and neck.)

Spread of 360-Degree Cameras

As the way a car looks becomes more important than actually being able to see out of said car, cameras are becoming a necessary technological evil. Gone are the days when you could actually look over your shoulder and back out of a parking spot—and let’s face it, you’re too busy texting—so now we get neat overhead views stitched together by a computer and four camera feeds. The video-game set will have no problem acing the parking segment of the driving test of the future. That is, if everything doesn’t have automated parking systems by then, such as those already available from BMW, Ford, and Lexus/Toyota.

Night Vision Goes Mainstream

Another use of cameras is night vision, also the province of the luxobarges. BMW’s current system uses infrared and displays a heat-based, gray-scale image, and Mercedes’ amplifies available light. Toyota is now working on a color night-vision setup, using research into how nocturnal dung beetles see in low-light situations. Honestly, we couldn’t make this stuff up.

Airbags Go Where They’ve Never Gone Before

And just when you thought there were no more nooks or crannies in which to cram airbags comes news of the seatbelt airbag. The idea is to inflate the belt, spreading the force experienced during a collision over a larger area and helping keep you in place during an accident. Ford has announced it will debut such a device on the rear seatbelts of the 2011 Explorer, and this technology is sure to spread to many other vehicles.

STAYING EFFICIENT

If there’s one thing we know from working for a conglomerate, it’s how to synergize our efficiencies. We don’t know what that means, mind you, but it’s a safe bet that automakers—big and small—do and that they’re going to help us save more fuel and move to other sources of propulsion as the decade progresses. We’re already seeing it; electric cars of some flavor or another have been announced or at least promised by most manufacturers, and every auto show brings more hybrids to the table.

Battery Charging through the Air

With the imminent (or maybe not so imminent) proliferation of plug-in vehicles will come the need to easily charge batteries. Sure, you could pull into a spot and stick a clunky plug into the car’s charge port, but what’s futuristic about that? Inductive charging may be the convenient—and cool—answer. Already being applied on a small scale to handheld electronics like iPods and cell phones, this allows for charging sans wires, instead employing an electromagnetic field to pass the power. So when the day comes that you arrive home in your electric car, charging it might entail no more than parking over a mat embedded in or placed on the garage floor.

Stop/Start Systems Immigrate

For vehicles still saddled with internal-combustion engines, stop/start ignition will see wider use to save fuel. These systems shut down a vehicle’s engine when stopped and are already available across Europe and employed in most hybrids, but their adoption in the U.S. has been stymied due to automakers seeing a negligible effect from them during EPA fuel-economy testing. The real-world advantage is far from negligible, however, and as the price of the hardware goes down, we expect to hear—or not—more silent intersections. As an added bonus, systems that can talk to traffic lights via car-to-X tech will be better able to judge whether or not shutting down the engine will be advantageous, depending on when the light is going to change.

Aerodynamics Go Active

We’re also seeing a greater emphasis on aerodynamics, enabled by better computer modeling and more wind-tunnel time. Active aero is the next step, which involves things like powered shutters for radiator grilles, as seen on many current BMWs in Europe. The Ferrari 458 Italia even has deformable slats in its front air ducts. Controlling and metering airflow so the vehicle is cheating the wind as much as possible will result in significant fuel-saving benefits.

Even More Use of Advanced Materials

With all this tech comes more stuff, sending the already bloated weights of modern cars higher. That’s where new lightweight materials come into play. Audi has already showed us how downsizing engines and lightening its vehicles will help fuel economy—at a cost, of course. Not only will more lightweight materials like aluminum, magnesium, and carbon fiber be used to construct the chassis and body, but weight-saving materials will see wider use in the cabin, as well. Thinner seat shells reduce weight and have the added benefit of increasing effective interior volume. New lighter and thinner composites will also reduce the mass of interior parts. Such weight savings will be imperative with batteried vehicles, the heaviest of the bunch coming down the line in the near term.

In short, the future looks a lot like today, but with more computers. And maybe some robots. We’re really excited about the robots.